[XPERIA X1 ROM Development] Howshall:
Starting fresh and clean with Valkyrie x1_firestorm_v5.4.23517LEO

Following my previous post about why I'm moving on from previous Valkyrie x1_firestorm_v5.4.28014LEO-II - http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=5359272#post5359272

- Flashed successfully with SD Card method having transfered kovsimg.nbh to SD root while in USB Drive mode

- On flash success removed battery, waited 10+ seconds and then immediately held both silver soft keys and power to

Hard reset before first startup

- After Hard reset phone allowed to go through normal first startup until Connection setup

- Realised I'd left SD card in so removed SD card and did 2nd Hard reset (Doh!)

- After Hard reset phone allowed to go through normal first startup including T-Mobile UK connection setup

- Changed System region to UK and then soft reset via icon in Start menu root (Really doing things step by step!)

- After restart configured Timezone to GMT London + correct Date and Time

- Inserted SD Card

- Restored all but 'Custom' from full PIMBackup (As wanting to avoid setting up normal ActiveSync atm)

Details of restore:

-- 316 Contacts restored

-- 187 Appointments restored

-- 300 Call logs restored

-- 551 Text messages restored

-- 1 Speed dial restored

-- 0 Tasks restored

- Unchecked 'Home Timeout' within Start > Settings > Home > Items panel

- Updated Windows Media player library to find SD card music

Already on radio 1.16.25.48 and Agent confirmed 23517 comes with 1.14.25.55 rilphone.dll (so not re-cab'd that)

Have not yet setup other typical settings which I will gradually enable:

- Leaving ROM on WM6.5 default, not initially enabling HTC Sense 2.5

- Not setup any WiFi connections

- Not setup any email accounts

- Not setup any auto data connections (most are associated with HTC Sense anyway)

- Not set Simple PIN lock on phone

- Not changed default screen/standby timeout times

- Not set owner info

- Not changed any registry, advanced config or installed any extra or updated CABs

Will report back any problems Standby of Death (SoD) or lockups as updates to this post. When and if I find anything conclusive related to SoD I'll post as new post and point back to this for history.

If anyone things or knows of anything else I should do or set on my minimal install here please let me know.

No problems or lockups so far in first 2hrs of configuration, successful round robin SMS and some light browsing in Opera Mobile 10 :-)

First 24hrs update - 14/01/10-15/01/10

Pleased to say (as mostly expected) that 23517 has been completely stable with not even 1 freeze and no SoD overnight on mains charge with the minimal configuration as described above. Based on that I've decided to change around my plan and today I'm going to configure everything I would normally on the phone itself (but staying on WM default Titanium home plugin), and also try to run all the included apps at least once and then leave it for another overnight main charge.

If all goes well with that next 24hrs then tomorrow I'll re-setup Activesync to one of the two PCs I normally dual sync to and do another 24hrs like that, and then following 24hrs enable Manila but not configure weather or other auto data stuff, then 24hrs after that finish enabling everything I'd normally do such as weather, facebook integration and removing tabs I don't use.

Will report back here after each 24hrs and obviously if and when I get SoD problems I've hopefully only changed a few things so I can back those out and then re-test for stability.

Second 24hrs update - 15/01/10-16/01/10

Summary:

No Standby of Deaths in second 48hrs either even though WM default alarms had been set (see side issue below), email was on 4hr auto download and battery had been drained to 27% before it was put on mains charge overnight.

Given alarms issue and 4 more minor ROM glitches I'm going to re-test as current below (without Manila home) for another 24hrs and then report back with further update on this post

Changes made:

- Reduced system text size by 1 notch left within Start > System > Screen > Text size panel

- Connected phone to secured home WiFi

- Setup IMAP email account with 4hrs auto sync period

- Changed WM calendar options to send appointments via IMAP email account and to display prefered icons next to appointments - Calendar > Tools > Options > Appointments tab

- Toggled phone to 2G data connection by default as on Edge of 3G area and improves battery life when not actively browsing high data sites - Communications Manager > 3G > Auto mode off

- Set Owner Info - Start > Settings > Personal > Owner Information

- Set Simple PIN with 30min timeout - Start > Settings > Lock

- Changed Incoming call ringer to 'Ring02-Velvet' - Start > Settings > Sounds & Notifications > Notifications panel

- Downloaded QuickGPS update - Start > GPS > QuickGPS

- Re-calibrated touch screen - Start > Settings > System > Screen > Align screen button

- At 11:30 set WM alarm for 13:15 with sound and vibrate - Alarm worked ok

- Used Advanced config to enable Sent SMS notification and disable Delivery Success message - Personal preference

- Amended X1 Camera and Video recorder settings to my preferences (Widescreen, Auto Flash, Highest settings)

Testing detail:

- Successfully tested the following included ROM applications while on home WiFi:

-- Games: Solitaire

-- Office Mobile: Calendar,Acrobat,Tasks,Notes,MS Word,MS PowerPoint,MS Excel

-- Applications: Empty by default

-- MS Marketplace: Successfully installed Marketplace, signed in with LiveID and downloaded and installed Shazam trial. Shazam Trial worked and successfully identified played track

-- Internet: Facebook App, Live Messenger, RSS Hub

-- GPS: Quick GPS, Google Maps with My Location and 1st GPS fix in 1 min due to prior QuickGPS

-- Multimedia: Windows Media, HTC Albums (inc Video!), Pictures and Video, YouTube all working

- Problem software

-- Internet Explorer will fail to start until this fix CAB from Agent is installed

ROM Glitches:

-- A few times today have had behaviour of phone readily coming back from standby but then going back into standby within 10sec even if you were in the middle of scolling Titanium interface, was okay if you managed to click through to SMS/Email/Calendar within that 10sec, initially fixed after Soft Reset but has re-occured. Same happens whether PIN lock is due to kick in or not. Will continue to test

-- Only once had sustained graphics glitch when reminder popped up while browsing in Opera Mobile, whole screen inverted/glitched but phone was fully functional and fixed on Soft Reset

-- Overnight built in WM alarms activated onscreen but did not vibrate or make sound as requested. Error was re-producable that morning with newly set alarms for 10-15mins ahead of current time until after soft reset, since when alarms have now been working properly. Will continue to investigate. - Update: See 1) in 17-18 update below

-- In Titanium Home screen if you get a new text message the preview text that displays within Titanium SMS notification area over rights (i think) the name of the person the new message is from, making both parts of the text unreadable. Everything is fine when you click through into WM SMS itself, it's just a visual layout issue in Titanium.

Third 24hrs update - 16/01/10-17/01/10

As planned didn't make any further changes to device setup. Everything ran well all day, not freezes, hangs or Standby of Deaths. Phone was fine charging from approx 65% overnight on Mains.

Have confirmed there's definately a sound and vibrate issues with WM default alarm function in this ROM as although Call, SMS and Reminder notifications were sounding Alarms would pop-up on screen, but with no sound or vibrate.

Have now swapped Home item from 'WM Default' (Titanium) across to 'HTC Sense'. Got initial lockup (not SoD) when I tried to return from Start menu to new Home interface and had to reset, since then had 1 other temp lockup when first navigating Sense UI, but that's not unexpected while Sense is still trawling and creating databases.

I have deliberately not yet set up Location, Weather, Twitter, Facebook Integration or anything data related within Sense 2.5 tabs (except for previously setup WM Mail 4hr auto update) and will test for further 24hrs after which I'll enable all that stuff.

Of interest once Sense Home is enabled the HTC based alarm (which is different than WM default in this ROM) seems to be working fine in terms of activating and sounding alarms as requested. Have set one for tomorrow morning and we'll see how it does overnight tonight.

Fourth 24hrs update - 17/01/10-18/01/10

Results of 1st 24hrs with Manila as Home UI but not auto data Weather/Facebook/etc setup has been stable and free of SoD overnight on mains charge however for the two reasons below I'm going to continue in this state before finishing configuring Manila fully:

1) HTC based Alarms seem to work and sound correctly when using default HTC sounds, however the alarm that was still previously set from WM Default to use a sound from within Windows directory (believe it was .wma) triggered onscreen, but did not make any noise. From looking at device HTC prefered Alarms seem to be .wav files so believe this problem is related to Ringer issues that Agent_47 is aware of and working on.

2) I had a lockup of the device while it was in standby, but not willing to call it a normal SoD as it occured when I'd just been into and then cancelled sending a SMS via HTC Messaging and then returned to Manila UI. This is the reason that I'm going to keep the phone in current state and configuration for another 24hrs to investigate further.

Fifth and Sixth 24hrs 18/01/10-20/01/10

Confirmed that during the day .wav format based alarms went off fine and as expected, however over 1st and 2nd nights I had the phone lock-up on me with Manilla enabled and configured with auto data items.

Both times the trigger seemed to be when the phone reached full battery charge (not due to ROM bug top status bar shows this as 99%). 1st night having been put onto charge early in the evening the phone locked up twice, once about 11.15pm when it had fully recharged the screen auto switched on and then phone locked with screen frozen on. Second lock-up was found when I woke up in the morning.

2nd Night phone was found in un-responsive standby mode (classic SoD) when I woke up this morning and programmed alarm had not sounded.

I'm now de-selecting Manila for next 24hrs to check that phone is still otherwise stable and then tomorrow may well try installing a 3rd party Manila cab to see if that proves any more stable on what is otherwise a very stable WM default build.

20/01/10 - 21/01/10

Without Manila ROM re-proved to be 100% stable and alarms worked as long as .wav type alarm tones were selected. No freezes, hangs or SoD's for that 24hrs.

Tried to install Rota's Manila 2.5 w Landscape but it didn't like running on newer layout of thin top and start button at buttom format of this ROM and kept locking up and not having Manila bottom tabs in sight.

Have done a hard reset of the device with SD card still present and not switching off 'Home timeout' and setting up all normal setting above, plus for the first time with this flash ActiveSync to two computers at once, all to try and stress the phone out and check if this ROM is still 100% stable when staying with 'WM Default/Titanium' UI as Home interface.

Will report back findings as always on this post

21/01/10 - 22/01/10

Well as expected/hoped a full setup WM Titanium on this 23517 Valkyrie ROM is 100% stable even with dual activesync, alarms, reminders, phone calls, texts, Opera 10 browsing (both with and without WiFi) so on this ROM at least the base WM 6.5 is very very stable on X1 hardware.

I'm now going to stick my head back into the fire and re-enable the in build 'HTC Sense' Manila 2.5 inteface, but not setup any data connection related tabs such as Weather, Stocks, Facebook, Twitter and will see if without those elements enabled things are stable for 48hrs over the weekend (or however long it takes for a full SoD to occur)

22/01/10 - 24/01/10

Phone was stable and ok with Manila enabled (but not auto data stuff) daytime 22nd, unfortuenately needed alarm so switched to Titanium UI overnight, and phone was fine and alarm went off as planned.

23rd phone put back on Manila in the morning and was fine on car charger but later that day in normal use would not come out of standby once during day so had to reset with Stylus

24th Manila was fine overnight charging from mains and reminders and alarms worked fine, however around lunchtime experienced SoD in normal use.

Now removed all excess tabs and still not setup normal data stuff to see if I can narrow issue down to a particular part of Manila, but will likely be moving on to newer Valkyrie 5.6.23518-F5 release soon in the hope of that being a ROM without SoD problems under Manila, otherwise will likely start looking for a WM6.5.3 with Manila 2.1 as next most likely functionally rich but stable option. If I can't find that I guess I'll have to head back to WM6.1 :-(

24/01/10 - 25/01/10

Over last 24hrs with minimal, no auto data, Manila 2.5 (only Home, SMS, Email, Calendar and People tabs, all others disabled) I didn't get an SoD overnight while on charge, but did get 1 SoD during the previous day and another soon after taking the device off charge in the morning.

So while I can personally recommend this ROM valkyrie v5.4.23517 if you want a stable WM 6.5.3 (with Start button at bottom and finger friendly) under default Titanium home screen I advise against trying to run with Manila enabled.

Note 23517 does have 2 main known issues:

- Included IE doesn't run without Agent provided CAB fix

- Sounds only work reliably if using .wav type files

Currently a refreshed version of Valkrie 5.6 seems to have solved these and other problems and is working well for many people so either locate the fixes for these two issues or try valkyrie.ftp V5.6.23518-F5 wm6.5.3 23nd Jan first (Not personally tested, but likely again you'd need to run without Manila to avoid SoD's)

If you want to know what I think of next ROMs I try then keep an eye on my Sig below which is always up to date with latest links.